I have not tried the PortKey EVF, but have used a SideFi dear setup, which is a little in the bulky side, but lightweight. The setup is easy to look through and focus is quick and accurate using one. But, as I previously mentioned, it is a reflex viewer vs a direct view optical EVF. I prefer the later, which is why I got the BMD EVF and did the Wooden Camera mod, to reduce its bulk. The closest EVF to this would be the Gratical Eye, but it costs more. Use Side Finders are available at a good price, if you already have the 501 Monitor (501 is HDMI and costs less than the 502/SDI or 503 Bright models).

The PortKey looks interesting, with a good price. You should see if you can get one with a return option, if you do not like looking through it or it doesn’t work for you. It did get a coup,e of good reviews. But, EVFs are kind of a personal thing, based on your vision requirements, experience using EVFs and eye relief for viewing comfort. What I like, you may not. Cheers

I used the EVF on my AF100 when shooting outdoors on sticks, and in the Studio to get an accurate focus, when needed. Use it this way in the Ursa Broadcast, and when shooting shoulder mounted. I first used the Zacuto EVF Pro (3-inch screen with a loupe setup) it worked very well for pulling an accurate focus.

Early ENG cameras I learned with, didn’t have a screen, just the EVF, so an EVF became part of my workflow. We had to add an external monitor screen when doing events, to reduce eye fatigue trying to use the EVF for extended times. I find the EVF great for getting an accurate focus, and framing when shoulder mounted or in outdoor sunny conditions. Otherwise the high quality monitors available today are very useable in the field or studio. Cheers

That sounds great, Kim. Please keep me updated. At the moment we’re running the BMPCC4K with a small rig cage so would probably want to attach into that. Shooting Berlin’s nightlife would certainly benefit from a loupe for focussing and an extra point of contact for stability

Kim Janson wrote:For that what I posted pefore should be just fine. inexpensive HDMI ro AV converter and this. I may use that for a drone, just for framing. It is analogue signal anyway.

Screenshot 2019-05-02 at 5.54.38.jpg

Just connect analogue video (two wires) and 5V to a USB battery from HDMI converter and the monocular. (two wires) Prety simple, not even necessary to solder, just protect the wires. At your own risk of course. And no gurarantees it will work.

This could work with BMMCC or BMMSC as these cameras have composite video output.

This example shows Zacuto’s largest EVF. Their new Kameleon, is much smaller measuring in at 4.9 x 2.75 x 2.83" / 12.45 x 6.99 x 7.19 cm. This and the Gratical Eye are about as small as yiu are going to get a high end EVF that has enough Eye relief for most professional (looking through the EVF 3-6 hrs a day during a shoot). While smaller EVFs may be possible, but shrinking it also shirks the optical part, and that is were the issue is, you need a large enough optical block to give a good, unrestricted, easy to look at, experience for a too, you will be using more than just once or twice a year.

Built in EVFs on most mirrorless cameras are not that easy to use for video, but work fine for still photography, where you are not trying to look through it for five minutes or more at a time.

Perhaps their is an emerging market for a lower cost, mass market EVF to use on the new small cameras coming out. But right now, this is a very small market, and the cost is high because the demand and production is low. But even at $1995, the first batch of Kameleon B&H got (not sure how many that was) have already sold out.

Ideally, I would like to see a slightly smaller version of the BMD EVF without the Ursa Mini Mount setup, that has HDMI input, and can be powered by 7.5 to 18 VDC, so various power options, including NP type batteries will work with it, at a cost under $800. I do not want a smaller optical system than the ones currently used on the Kameleon or BMD EVF, they are a good size, offering excellent eye relief. Also, an OLED would be perfect.

For me, the Kameleon EVF offers the best current option for a good HDMI EVF to use with a Camera like the Pocket 4K or a Nikon Z6. Yes, like good lenses, this EVF costs more than these two cameras, but this EVF is also marked to Panasonic EVA1 users, who paid $5-6K for their camera. I wish it were more like $995, also, I would get one tomorrow. But meanwhile, I will struggle on with my BMD/Wooden Camera mod EVF, and use a HDMI to SDI Converter with HDMI out Cameras, which adds bulk.Cheers

I've had enough shooting daylight exterior with the pk4. Going back to the fs700 or f7. A friend loaned me a shinobi, works ok if you don't have the sun behind you, go figure.

Ill use the pk4 for interior or night shooting. Until something comes out, Yes, I have a spectra HD evf that works fine but its bigger than my p4k.

The loop pictured above looks good (I don't have a 3d printer nor desire to get one) but it depends on the diopter. If not I hope the cup permits the use of eyeglass.

I hope BMD or someone else comes out with a good EVF for The p4k. If not I'll have to purchase the portkeys. The bmd evf hack looks good but I don't want to add an SDI to HDMI box to complicate my cage.

I can justify the portkeys because I can use it with my other cameras but would rather spend less.

I like to use a small monitor indoor over an EVF, but an EVF or a loupe outdoors to shade the daylight. Recently, I got the SmallHD FOCUS OLED 5.5 SDI monitor and cine kit. I'm sold on this product. The screen is so damn good and visibility is par. I'm using it on the UMP but will use it in my upcoming P4K as well. The monitor comes with a sunshade and I love how SmallHD made it clamp the sunshade to the monitor - it's very sturdy and well made. The FOCUS has been their most marketable product on both the pro and prosumer market. I hope they will come up with a loupe for it. Price reasonably, I think they will sell a lot - almost the number of FOCUS OLED 5.5 they expect to sell. Other than that, other loupe makers should be thinking about making loupes for the FOCUS. SmallHD design are elegant and I hope they do create the loupe for it.

Sorry ...I thought it was clear that that was just a mockup.The thing is, I agree with Ray Polannen that the EVF's are huge. The design of the Portkey's design made clear where the oled is more or less placed, meaning everything behind it is just electronics. So why not move those to the rig/ camera?The advantages:-one cable from rig/camera to eye piece.-Less weight from eye piece, better balance camera.-short connection cables hdmi/ sdi/battery from camera to electronic part.-no hinder from evf when reaching lens for manual control.

No idea who is going to pick this up, but I'm happy with a copy if they use the idea ( which is basicly the sony venice idea, detach mount from body).

ricardo marty wrote:

Bunk Timmer wrote:If you don't mind adding a bit of bulk to the rig, the eye piece itself can stay relative small. A solution that just needs some robust cable with plugs to connect both parts.

The tiny 3.5" Ikan with a Kinothenik loupe is light and folds flat on the camera/case with a smallrig mount. All told costs very little and we've been hauling a couple of P4ks with them all over creation for several months shooting literally dozens of outdoor films.

However, I find this prety good for a very simple rig. It provides very good visibility on the screen and 3rd support point from the head when shooting. The camera buttons come easy to use blindly after some practise, everything is nicely acessible without taking eye from the loupe.

Touch screen needs to be operated only when accessing the camera menu, not needed during normal shooting. The loupe provides access to the touch screen when needed.

Where is this loop available? What diopters does it have? will the eyecup cover glasses?

Why don't we flood directly the pertinent persons' email at bmd about our need for an evf? Nothing rude just to let our concerns be presented directly. Im sure they have sold way over 30 thousand bmp4ks. It will be another income stream. Someone get the email and pass it on.

Started testing with my new BMPCC4K and the number one irritation is that difficulty in seeing the image to do anything critical when in daylight. I cannot see it well enough at 100% brightness to judge levels and will totally rely on false colour. I cannot see well enough to focus and even relying on focus assist is problematic because the Medium strength of red lines seems less accurate than the Low strength but it can be very difficult to see Low red lines on moving subjects.

The BMPCC4K is a wonderful camera, but there’s room for improvement in this area. At least it has full HDMI so either an EVF or additional Very Bright monitor is required. Indoors or outdoors where it isn’t bright, the included 5” monitor is fine. I’ve been so reliant on the BMVF on the URSA Mini 4.6K it was a bit of a shock not to have it!

A lack of proper EVF was the number one reason I bought a super bright 7" camera monitor with 2,200 Nits for daylight capable usage. A viewfinder would be nice and I love the one on my GH5, but the Blackmagic Pocket 4k simply does not have one, so a super-bright daylight viewable monitor (and a pair of reading glasses) was the answer for me on my BMPCC4K rig.

The original pocket camera never had an evf. Bmd never made one for them. So I guess we are stranded and at the mercy of some developers. or purchase the portkeys or Zacuto. With the popularity of this camera, I don't understand why hasn't any developer come forward with a p4k specific solution.

rick.lang wrote:Started testing with my new BMPCC4K and the number one irritation is that difficulty in seeing the image to do anything critical when in daylight. I cannot see it well enough at 100% brightness to judge levels and will totally rely on false colour. I cannot see well enough to focus and even relying on focus assist is problematic because the Medium strength of red lines seems less accurate than the Low strength but it can be very difficult to see Low red lines on moving subjects.

I made a simple grayscale LUT which helps with focusing a little bit. The red lines pop up better from a gray image. I have the LUT mapped at function key 2 and false color at 1. If it's really bright, I use false color even for composing, not ideal, but helps a little bit. I wish you could make the focus assist lines thicker so that you could keep the tolerance/range of Low strength but still have the lines more visible.

An EVF would be nice but with prices higher than the camera and still no cheaper options available... Now waiting for my Feelworld FW279 ultrabright to arrive.

Some time ago I contacted portkeys about the need for a smaller less complicated evf. Someone there just answered and told me that they will be releasing another evf for another cinema camera (I will not name) That will work with HDMI and be smaller. He didn't mention when, but I suspect it should be soon. That's all, no price given.

Kim Janson wrote:For that what I posted pefore should be just fine. inexpensive HDMI ro AV converter and this. I may use that for a drone, just for framing. It is analogue signal anyway.

Screenshot 2019-05-02 at 5.54.38.jpg

Just connect analogue video (two wires) and 5V to a USB battery from HDMI converter and the monocular. (two wires) Prety simple, not even necessary to solder, just protect the wires. At your own risk of course. And no gurarantees it will work.

Hey, nice find! This thing actually costs around $55. Why do you think it may not work?Seems too small size but may work well as low cost EVF for BMMCC. Power consumption 3.7-5V 120MA so it could be powered directly from camera expansion port 5V output. I still keep my BMMCC camera with broken HDMI and looking for cheap AV monitoring option for it, so i may try this thing.For P4K you need additional HDMI to AV converter.

uPd. Seems feedback reviews for this product are not too great

Additional Feedback

Checked the monitor in the work-the image is small, you can compare as if you look at a 20-inch monitor from a distance of two meters, everything is visible, but small and far. The diopters in the eyepiece are not adjusted, the thread on the tuning ring and on the body do not match in diameters!!! ???, after 10 minutes of finding in the hands spontaneously opened the back cover of the monitor from which the wire goes out, all the electronics fell out!!!!. In general, the product is raw unfinished, who needs to turn on and work do not buy!!!.

I ordered the second time, the first fell apart (fastened very flimsy). Well, let's see how this one!?!

All my custom made accessories for BMMCC/BMMSC now available here https://lavky.com/radioproektor/

There is also very small Kinefinity KineEVF, but it use proprietary connection and there is no any HDMI cable adapter for it yet.

Zacuto Kameleon is actually JTZ X01K EVF which was sold in very small amount on Facebook directly by JTZ (Fotga department). Seems they decide to cooperate with Zacuto to take attention of high end cinema market.

All my custom made accessories for BMMCC/BMMSC now available here https://lavky.com/radioproektor/

EVFs are so expensive only because they are rather new tools, because they are manufactured in very small amounts and because there are only few companies in the world that actually manufacture them. More competition, more mass market sales - lower price. I noticed that EVFs have tiny cooling fan, so it is not so simple to avoid components overhead in small sized body. Probably quality optics also not so simple to manufacture in small batches for low cost. Bad diopter may easy destroy crisp image. But anyway current EVF prices are something outside of hobby market. I really like to see one more SmallHD sidefinder concept. New version with some bugfixes and improvements.

All my custom made accessories for BMMCC/BMMSC now available here https://lavky.com/radioproektor/

There is the slowly developing vr headsets, having decent panels optics etc at decent price... perhaps a source for cheaper evf panels in some form. Then again I speculate there might be some not so cheap patent lisencing fees involved with cinema gear.

Now affordable 1080p lightweight hdmi EVF would be nice, at least it would make balancing of my rig easier. As for now I have "heavy" recording 7 inch monitor adding even more front left side weight. The viewing distance and how it fits in with the other stuff near the lens front end... it gets tight.

Also lens can cost more than the camera and be well worth it.Lenses are usually used much longer than a camera. A good EVF could be also long lasting tool.

Well put Kim, both are more of an investment that can span several cameras these days.

Dmitry, EVFs are not really “new”, they have been around in one form or another and long time, and go back to the beginning of 1970’s electronic news gathering cameras for TV Broadcasting. They started out as miniature CRT tubes, with a high end optical lens system in front. A good ENG Camera EVF can cost from $3K to $6K, so $1500 to $2K for a new OLED EVF is a bargain in my book.

In the Cinematography world, EVFs go back to film cameras, at the end of the 20th Cent. When prism blocks were used to split out the lens image and send it to a small camera mounted on the camera to feed a director’s monitor snd later a EVF for the camera operator. These setups cost even more $.

But yes, inexpensive EVFs (under $3K) are relatively new, and Zacuto has been a leader in this field, with it’s first low cost EVF the ZFinder EVF Pro (which I still have). While a EVF can cost as much or more than a camera, is a rather recent event, with the drop in cost of good cameras, like BMDs Pocket ($995) and the new Pocket 4K at $1400. Previously, a GH5/S was the other small camera choice, and it was $2K, and when the Zacuto EVF came out, the BMCC was $4K, the AF100 $6K, and a Red Camera 10K and up.

So it is not that EVFs cost more than a Camera, their price is fairly stable, $2-4K, but their quality has improved with the release of OLEDs, bit rather the cost of good cameras has gone down. My original Sony EVF was a B&W CRT, that mounted to a specific Series of Sony Cameras. Have a Panasonic ENG camera, and you need to buy their EVF. Red also has an expensive EVF as does ARRI, most of which cost twice what a Zacuto Gratical Eye costs.

I took BMD’s Ursa Mini EVF and did the Wooden Camera mod, to get it down to a smaller size, with removable cables. The only thing it lacks is a HDMI input, which the new Zacuto EVF solves. Now, only if BMD would step up to the plate again, and do with a good EVF with HDMI/SDI inputs for use with cameras like the new Pocket 4K.

While we do not complain when buying a good $3K lens for a $1500 camera, why are we complaining about spending $1500 to $2K for a good EVF, so you can see what your are doing? In today’s ever changing camera market, the camera is becoming the least expensive part of the Video/Cinema camera rig. Cheers

ENG camera EVFs were not built in, but they were analog, and powered from the camera battery (CRT was lower hungry cimpato LCD or OLEDs), and were connected to a proprietary, multi-pin cable, Sony used 8-pin and later new cameras use 12-pin. They were not small, about the same size or larger hsn the BMD EVF. SDI is used on larger pro cameras as they do not come apart on their own, and are a universal standard. Prior to SDI, the output in Betacams was a 50-pin cable, that connected to an outboard recorder for a backup, and to a CCU in Studio applications. This has been replaced by the new fiber connection.HDMI is a high definition media interface designed for consumer video equipment like TVs and DVD players, and now used on lower end cameras.Cheers

Kim Janson wrote:HDMI is not a good standard for EVF as it does not provide power and it does not have fixed resolution or refresh rate.

In perfect world all devices evolutionary should be switched to displayport interface instead of HDMI long time ago. Displayport is better designed, faster, simpler and connectors are better designed. Full sized DisplayPort even have secure latching clamps. Displayport cable also can provide power to devices.

All my custom made accessories for BMMCC/BMMSC now available here https://lavky.com/radioproektor/

It always comes down to Betamax versus VHS. Innovation faces the resistance of inertia. Look at the ubiquitous presence of jpeg stills versus the many challengers over decades.

I’m likely as guilty as anyone. I’ll make that ‘useless’ monitor on the BMPCC4K work... while hoping BMD has a portable small EVF coming next year that will be ideal for the BMPCC4K. If they developed the BMVF for that smaller market, surely the huge market of the BMPCC4K justifies a new BMPVF.

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Last edited by rick.lang on Wed Jul 03, 2019 1:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

rick.lang wrote: while hoping BMD has a portable small EVF coming next year that will be ideal for the BMPCC4K. If they developed the BMVF for that smaller market, surely the huge market of the BMPCC4K justifies a new BMPVF.

BM, and others, should have realized by now that there is a big marked for it. Not only for bmpcc, but other cameras as well. It could be that it’s just not possible with today’s technology. Even though it seem most unlikely. One thing that baffles me, is that we don’t even have a third party developer standing up for the task. You would think that the word “we got the smallest evf” is something of an achievement. But maybe the whole business think otherwise... who knows.

Yes, but this could be a $5K+ Viewfinder! And it is only going to work on a Arri Camera.This is not a true Sidefinder either, it is two units, a monitor and a EVF in one unit. Per the B&H description, “EVF and LCD monitor may be used simultaneously”. So you are not using the small LCD screen, to use the OLED EVF.

Denny Smith wrote:Yes, a $5K+ Viewfinder!This is not a true Sidefinder either, it is two units, a monitor and a EVF in one unit. Per the B&H description, “EVF and LCD monitor may be used simultaneously”. So you are not using the small LCD screen, to use the OLED EVF.

Yes I magined. But the form factor i perfect small and simple, at first look i think